1. Technical Field
Aspects of this document relate generally to telecommunication systems and techniques for transmitting data across a telecommunication channel.
2. Background Art
Since the introduction of digital communications, determining the error rate (ER) of a link is crucial for determining the “goodness” of a link. For wireless communications links that carry network packet data such as, but not limited to the Internet Protocol (IP), Internetwork Packet Exchange (IPX), or NetBIOS Extended User Interface (NetBEUI), etc., determining the ER is critical to understanding the required power or energy for the wireless communications link to guarantee an established level of operation to satisfy desired level of service to the end user.
For wireless communications, such as, but not limited to, satellite communications, an established ER may be obtained using a specific antenna configuration and combined amplifier(s) to achieve a particular power level though the link. In the art, a “link budget” may be performed to establish the required antenna size and power amplification devices, each resulting in gain. This combined gain results in a total gain applied to a signal to compensate for path loss (resulting in attenuation) to the signal to ensure that the signal arrives at the destination with enough energy to provide a known level of correct packets versus erroneous packets. The result is an ER that is acceptable for operation at the established service level agreement required for the link.
In the art, the ER versus the power is known as an ER curve. Traditionally, bit transmission systems utilize a Bit Error Rate (BER) versus required power, but with the introduction of frame and packet based systems that use forward error correction (FEC) codes over the transmission frames or packets, the focus has moved away from BER and has been more focused on Packet Error Rate(PER).
For wireless satellite communications, the introduction of the Digital Video Broadcasting Satellite-Second Generation (DVB-S2), as specified in European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) EN 302 307, has solely focused on a transmission scheme that is packet based instead of bit based. Therefore, all performance of the transmission scheme is measured in PER versus power instead of the traditional BER performance as was specified in the first generation of DVB-S, as noted in ETSI EN 300 421.
Knowing the type of encapsulation allows the method, whether using internal or external network packet data as stimulus, to be utilized to ascertain the PER of the transmission link. Thus, a need exists for a method that allows one to determine the PER of a given link thereby resulting in the accomplishment of the creation of PER versus power curves and/or performance.